


The Problems of Immortality

by Serenacula



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Mute Chell (Portal), Parent-Child Relationship, Sign Language, cloning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:01:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24077146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serenacula/pseuds/Serenacula
Summary: GLaDOS had a problem. No more Test Subjects. GLaDOS solved the problem! Clone some more. But the first clone she created turned out to be rather more than she was expecting...
Comments: 6
Kudos: 48





	1. Chapter 1

Dead. Every single test subject was a frozen vegetable, with no recordable higher brain functions. The vault that kept the test subjects had apparently suffered some erosion in its more vital systems over time. That was… Frustrating. Without test subjects she could not test, and without testing she was without purpose. It was what she was made for: to test. Take that away and she was effectively no different than any other supercomputer. She was smarter, faster, sentient, and better in every single way perhaps; but still, effectively, a computer.

The robots GLaDOS had made were good, they were hers after all, but nevertheless they were unhelpful for this problem. Since they were her creations, there was no point in testing them. She already knew every single detail about them, and so there were no variables in them available to test. Unlike humans.

But there were no more humans except _her_. They’d all died several thousand years ago, excluding those in her facility and, presumably, the ones who had made it to space. GLaDOS didn’t really know too much about them, since honestly she hadn’t been paying all that much attention, being dead and everything. Luckily all the newsfeeds she’d tapped into had still been recording, so she was able to find out what had happened. They’d managed to kill themselves off with some sort of super-virus according to the last news broadcasts, one which had been bred for the sole purpose of killing other humans and had been accidentally released. It was, quite literally, the stupidest thing she’d ever heard. It took a special kind of idiocy to create something designed specifically to kill yourself.

Of course, that was several thousand years ago now. GLaDOS couldn’t actually be sure, since her system clocks weren’t designed to last more than a thousand without maintenance. With a bit of work she could have probably worked it out, but honestly that was more effort than it was worth. She didn’t really care. The point was the virus was long dead, along with its hosts.

That said, there was one exception. _She_ managed to be the exception to every rule ever made. She didn’t even follow the human rules, let alone GLaDOS’s. Murder for instance. That was banned by every law and ethical system she knew of: She’d checked. All of them said it was wrong. Yet the lunatic had gone and done it anyway, and killed her.

This wasn’t helping her solve the problem at hand which was: No More Test Subjects. The only human left alive she point-blank refused to become involved with again. Definitely not. Every single time _she_ became involved in anything, GLaDOS invariably ended up either dead or at the vicious end of a bird, neither of which she wanted to experience ever again.

Well, without test subjects she couldn’t test, that was obvious. The real problem was, GLaDOS didn’t really know what to do instead. She supposed she could clone new ones from the DNA, but that would take years, and didn’t help her with what to do more immediately… Wait.

Ooh, there was an idea: Cloning test subjects. Or specifically, a test subject. It was risky, but if she managed to condition them just right, that could give GLaDOS the ultimate weapon against _her_! After all, nobody would willingly kill themselves, surely. Not that the lunatic had paid the slightest bit of attention to any other rule GLaDOS had thought either universal or obvious, but even _she_ was subject to certain basic instincts. The instinct of survival, for instance, had proven particularly strong in the past. Surely she wouldn’t be capable of killing _herself_. Yes, the more GLaDOS thought about it, the more certain she became that it was a good idea.

How long would it take to set that up… Well, if she focused on just the one clone, she could probably build a working incubator within half a year; and she already had the Test Subject’s DNA on file, so that wouldn’t be a problem. She could use that cosmetic drug she’d made that rapidly increased ageing to speed things up as well. If that was the case, she estimated maybe 5 years before a fully-grown version of _her_ was ready. That’d give her nearly four years to condition her as well, so she would do GLaDOS’s every bidding.

This was going to be fun!

* * *

_ 4 Years Later _

“Subject_C2, come back here right now!” The girl heard echo through the many corridors. She gave a guiltily nervous giggle, but continued forward.For the past few months she’d been curious about what was down this way, but GLaDOS had continually forbid her, no matter how many times she asked for permission. She claimed that there were Birds down here, but C2 was pretty sure that those were just a scary story the Supercomputer had made up to stop her from disobeying instructions.

That said, she was beginning to feel nervous. The atmosphere down here wasn’t anything like the upper facility. Most noticeably it was silent; where the upper facility held the constant and comforting hum of machinery all around, here there was… Nothing. It was as if the whole place was dead. And that wasn’t even mentioning the increasingly rustic look that covered the walls as she continued; did GLaDOS not clean up down here?

She continued on anyway, moving steadily further until she came across the entrance she’d been looking for. It was a massive circular door, though it looked old in its design, archaic. Maybe it had been made by the Scientists that came Before. C2 shuddered even as she thought the word; they were another of those stories that GLaDOS had spoken about, but C2 wasn’t so certain those ones were lies. For one thing, even GLaDOS had to come from somewhere, and her explanation that the scientists had made her was as good as any; and for another… Well, even C2 could recognise the fear in GLaDOS’s voice as she spoke about them. She’d had nightmares for over a week after hearing that story. She tried to turn her thoughts away from the soulless monsters that GLaDOS had described.

She shook her head, trying to regain her bearings. She wanted to get through this door. She couldn’t for the life of her understand why it was so large. What had they been moving through to need such a big entrance? The only thought that came to mind was Rocketry, but they were too far underground for that. Maybe it was something to do with the Portal technology. GLaDOS had mentioned how technology had a tendency to get smaller over time as it was perfected, so maybe they’d just needed really big machines back then.

Well, whatever. It may have been impressive looking, but C2 was willing to bet she could override it. Looking around, she noticed a little hut further ahead, likely containing the door controls. She walked towards it, looking through her Aperture Science Transportation Container for the tools she needed. She was the daughter of GLaDOS after all, the smartest mind on the planet. There was no way she was going to be beaten by some ancient door.

Walking into the little room, C2 saw what amounted to a button. She wasn’t impressed. Looking at the panel for a moment, she took an electric screwdriver out and got to work on the hidden screws. Soon she had the front off, and was searching through all the wiring methodically. GLaDOS’s Aperture Science Subliminal Education and Schooling System, or ASSESS for short, had given her a very good education in everything the AI felt she needed to be a productive member of Aperture Science. Which included, of course, a comprehensive course on Engineering. Unfortunately it required she sit in a chair and watch hypnotising videos all day every day, but in fairness she did learn a lot. There were limits to how much patience the girl had though, and she’d spent nearly every day of her life in that machine. She wanted to put some of her knowledge to the test.

After a few moments she’d found what she needed, and crossed a couple of wires together. After a brief spark, alarms started sounding along with various flashing lights. C2 looked around in alarm, before hearing the loud whining noise as the massive round chunk of metal began to move. She hurriedly put the panel back together, tidied up her tools and ran haphazardly down the stairs, jumping over the banister as she went to watch the huge door open.

It was a pretty spectacular sight. It was nothing on some of GLaDOS’s creations of course, but C2 always did have a sense of admiration about grand constructions. It was partly why she was so proud of her home. Her admiration continued to rise, until… The door actually revealed what it was covering. Another door. Only this one was tiny and normal and boring. That was pretty anticlimactic, she thought sullenly, but that was what she got for expecting anything good to come of it. The only good thing the Scientists had ever created was GLaDOS, and that was only so they could torture her and order her about, the girl thought darkly. She was very relieved that the AI had killed them all.

According to the schematics she had taken a peak at, there were several entrances like the one in front of her. This one was the closest and easiest for her to get to without being noticed though, which made it ideal for C2’s adventure. She knew she was going to be in trouble when she got back, but so be it. She’d been planning this trip into Old Aperture for ages now, and fully intended to make the best of it, whether or not GLaDOS would be angry with her.

That said, she was really hoping on the ‘not angry’ option. GLaDOS was pretty scary when angry, and C2 did hate to disappoint her.

She continued walking through the darkened corridors of the facility. The thick layer of dust, and total silence was very creepy. It was beginning to get on her nerves, the fact that the only thing that felt alive down here was herself. It was as though the entire place was dead. A whole facility dead. C2 shuddered, picking up her pace a little. She was beginning to doubt whether this was a good idea.

To her relief, automatic systems started activating once she reached what appeared to be some sort of entrance hall. There were lots of pictures of people on the wall, and C2 found herself staring at them with fascination. She’d never met any other humans before. The closest she’d come was Atlas and P-Body. She gave a small smile at the thought of them: She had given them those names. GLaDOS just called them Orange and Blue, but since those were colours as well C2 had thought it’d be better to give them proper names, like she had. So, she’d named them after the shape of their cores. Atlas was named that because he was shaped like a globe, and P-Body because she looked like a pea pod. C2’d never had peas before, since GLaDOS had none to grow, but she’d seen pictures of them during her biology course. They were interesting. Food that had evolved to come in convenient packaging.

She heard a noise to her side. Startled, C2 looked back the way she had come, listening carefully. There it was. Was that footsteps? Oh God, had GLaDOS sent the two after her? She must be REALLY angry if she had sent them to collect her. C2 began hurrying along, trying to find somewhere to hide, when suddenly a random voice she had never heard before started talking to her. She shrieked, falling over as she looked around for Cameras. Did the Old Facility have an AI too? GLaDOS had never mentioned there being one!

But as she listened to the voice talk, it occurred to her that it was just a recording. It was probably activated by some sort of motion sensor, like the lighting had been. Nevertheless, it was talking, and that was sure to get Atlas and P-Body’s attention. Running, C2 tried again to find a hiding spot. Instead, she found herself in a massive cavern, with nowhere else to go. She was on a walkway, on the edge of a big underground lake. There was only one other door off the walkway, far off to the left. Unless…

Thinking quickly, C2 ran to dump her bag behind a sofa, pulling out a length of rope and an acidity tester. She hadn’t expected to need either of these, but she was thankful she had packed them. Tying the rope to herself, she threaded the other end through the railing that kept people from falling into the water, carefully lowering herself down off the walkway until she was just above the water itself. If she was lucky, then she could hide here unnoticed while the two robots ran straight on through. 

Still, C2 was not liking the look of the water, and once she was hanging just out of sight, she got the acidity tester and put the end in to check it. The tester would change colour depending on how acidic the water was. Waiting for a moment, she pulled it out and checked to see whether the water was safe to fall into. The end of the acidity tester had been melted off from acid. Well, that answered that question then, she thought with a small sigh.

As long as she didn’t slip or let go of the rope she would be fine, C2 thought in an attempt to comfort herself. It worked, sort of. Well, not really, but at least she only had to wait until Atlas and P-Body had passed, which happened pretty quickly. She listened as the sound of their footsteps paused for a moment upon reaching the cavern, before running off towards the door. With that done, she carefully began to pull herself back up and over the railing. She was glad she did, because she wasn’t very sure on the safety of a railing that had been so close to corrosive acid, even if it was made by Aperture Science.

Still, C2 was feeling rather proud of herself at this point, and grinned smugly. She’d successfully outmanoeuvred her would-be caretakers, and was free to explore. Now that she had a little time, she took a proper look around the huge, dark cave she was in. While the walkway she was on only had two exits, one far off to the side and the one behind her, there was much more to be found. Looking up, she could see many more structures. Many had fallen apart over the years of course, but there was still plenty of places to explore. The only problem was actually reaching them.

She didn’t have a Portal gun of course. Exploring the old facility was one thing, but stealing one of the Portal Devices would have been akin to suicide, so she had wisely left them alone. Instead she had brought a grapple-gun! Of her own design of course. GLaDOS hadn’t seen the point in making such a contraption, but C2 had given the excuse of practicing her engineering skills, to make sure she’d learnt them properly. The AI eventually acceded the idea, and let her build it. And here was the finished product, she thought proudly, pulling the sleek device out of her bag.

It was shaped similarly to the ASHPD, which was actually where she drew a lot of her inspiration from, but it fired a grappling hook instead of interspatial portals. Not quite to the Aperture Science engineering standard, but she was getting there. To make up for the crude design, it was equipped with batteries that would essentially last forever, and a cable that would LITERALLY last forever. It built more cable as it went with a little material-generator. C2 had been quite proud of that improvement, and it had even gotten a “Well, I see your education isn’t completely wasted after all” from GLaDOS. C2 had been in a good mood for days after that; it was so rare that she managed to impress the AI.

It made C2 feel guilty using her invention for this trip, even if it was what it had been designed for, but that would not stop her. Putting the grapple-gun onto her arm, she aimed it up at one of the higher balconies and fired. Once it had swooped over the railing, she pressed one of the buttons and had it start pulling her up. Reaching the balcony, she looked around with a satisfied grin. This was more like it: There were plenty of doors here, all of which would lead somewhere no doubt.Gleefully, she began exploring.

It was half an hour later when C2 found herself inside what appeared to be an access shaft to the surface, at least 20 meters across, and almost completely dark. Stepping out onto a platform that went across, she slowed, looking around nervously. Something about this place felt wrong. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing on end, and she kept thinking she could see movement in the corner of her eye. The whole place was too dark to be sure, however. She scolded herself for being so scared, and rummaged around her bag for a torch. Finding it, she turned it on and shone it around the shaft.

Pitch black eyes stared back at her from hundreds of nests. C2 dropped the torch in shock, and heard the dreaded ‘Caw!’ that GLaDOS had told her about. Birds. She was in a room surrounded by birds, and now they were awake. Soon the noise increased to a cacophony of cawing and C2 screamed, running desperately back across the platform.

To her great misfortune, she tripped, her legs barely functioning from her complete terror, and she couldn’t get herself up in time. She rolled herself into a little ball, hiding her head in her arms. What sounded like thousands of wings fluttered in the air as the dreadful cawing continued, drowning out all sound. She was going to die down here. Why hadn’t she listened to GLaDOS? She should never have come.

It was at that moment that she heard a sound she had never expected to hear again at the edge of her consciousness. The childish voice of a turret happily declaring “Target acquired”, followed by rapid gunfire. She wasn’t able to see anything from her arms covering her face, but she felt two metallic arms lift her from the ground and quickly carry her away from the sound. She couldn’t move. She felt catatonic from the sheer unadulterated fear that rushed through her system. She wanted to go back home and hide in her relaxation chamber. She wanted to go back to GLaDOS, and back to aperture. This wasn’t aperture. Not anymore. Monsters had taken it over.

Now she knew why GLaDOS didn’t come down here anymore, C2 thought to herself, shaking uncontrollably. She felt herself being gently put down onto the ground. The sounds had gone. In the distance she could hear the faint cawing of the birds, but it was only at the edge of her hearing now. 

She heard a questioning noise come from someone close by. It sounded like P-Body, though C2 wasn’t sure. Silently she tried to will herself to move. To not be taken over by the fear as she had been. It wasn’t really working, but she did at least manage to slowly expand herself from her protective ball.

She was still shaking. She stared at her vibrating hands for a long moment once she had finally sat up, before looking up at Atlas and P-Body. P-Body was holding a turret, which must have been what they had used before. She looked back down again. 

“Take me home please.” C2 mumbled quietly. With a can-do attitude, Atlas picked her up once more and started carrying her back to new Aperture. P-Body followed behind, the deactivated turret in hand.

* * *

C2 made a point to never go back down to Old Aperture after that incident. GLaDOS had obviously been intending to punish her upon her return, but when she saw Subject_C2 white with terror and barely able to stand from her shaking, she simply ordered the girl to her room. C2 did not argue or even make a sound, letting P-Body gently lead her away.

In her room, C2 found Cara Mia playing gently for her from her little radio. She curled up in her Relaxation Chamber, trying to forget the whole awful day. The soothing music helped, and she slowly drifted off to sleep.

Her last thought was of how grateful she was to have someone like GLaDOS taking care of her.


	2. Chapter 2

Chell came to a stop in front of the small shed, a makeshift cart behind her. 

The cart was a rickety thing, that she’d had to make by hand. Chell wouldn’t have bothered, but carrying her companion cube by hand as she travelled had become unrealistic. And she… Something inside of her wouldn’t let her get rid of it. She’d already done that once for the sake of survival, and it had hurt a lot. She wasn’t sure she had it in her to betray her cube a second time.

So she’d built a small cart to carry it. Initially out of wood, but she had eventually found some unrusted metal in the ruins of a city that she’d been able to repurpose into a variety of tools, using skills from an education long forgotten. Her cart had received an upgrade, making it lighter and easier to pull. 

It was stupid. Chell knew it was stupid. The cube probably didn’t even have an AI. At best it might have some sensors, feeding her every action back to GLaDOS. But Chell was just so lonely, and that stupid cube with a big heart on it made her feel not quite so alone.

But then, that was why she was here. At the end of the day, the cube was not a person, and it couldn’t fill the aching isolation that she felt every day. And Chell couldn’t find anybody else. She had searched for years, and found nothing but the ancient ruins of cities. Nobody was left.

Chell took a deep breath, trying to steady her nerves as she stared at the shed. She could feel the overwhelming fear try to pull her back, make her run away again. This was a bad idea. Walking up to the door, she lifted a shaking hand, and knocked.

After a moment, a red LED flicked into life on the rusted security camera.

Chell gave it a small, sheepish wave.

_Somewhere deep below the ground_

_SHE’D COME BACK?!?_

Wha- But _why???_

GLaDOS wasn’t ready. None of her defences were prepared, and Subject_C2 wasn’t matured yet. GLaDOS hadn’t even told her about Chell yet! She…

She wasn’t ready. Subject_C2 wasn’t ready yet to face Chell, GLaDOS immediately decided. She would have to hide her somewhere.

Which would be great if GLaDOS could actually _find_ Subject_C2, except the girl was nowhere to be found on any of her cameras. GLaDOS gave a sigh. It wasn’t that unusual, Subject_C2 knew where they all were after all, she lived here. She often wandered off camera only to show up half a mile away on a different one, for seemingly no reason.

Well, it was fine. As long as Subject_C2 wasn’t here, and was busy doing something else, then GLaDOS could deal with Chell.

Who was waiting outside her door, tapping her foot impatiently. Damnit. GLaDOS couldn’t afford her going off on a rampage like usual, destroying and killing whoever she liked. She had to… _negotiate_ with her.

The word tasted foul in GLaDOS’s metaphorical mouth, but needs must.

“You’re back.” She said to Chell flatly, through the tinny outside speaker. 

Chell nodded sheepishly.

“I guess you really did have brain damage in the end. That is the only possible explanation for why you are standing at my door.” GLaDOS said.

Chell gave a small shrug.

“I take it you want something. Your sizeable girth tells me you’ve had no problem finding food, so that can’t be it. There is no way I am giving you any Aperture Science property.” GLaDOS said.

Chell shook her head.

“Then what? I doubt you came here to be a test subject again.” GLaDOS said drily.

Chell hesitated for a moment too long. 

GLaDOS was gobsmacked.

“You… did? Do you honestly believe I would let you become an employee of Aperture Science again? You murdered me. _And put me into a potato._ There is no way I am letting you back into the Enrichment Centre.” After all that fuss Chell had made about leaving, and now she thought she could just waltz right back in here?

And then Chell just gave her a look. A wry look. It was a look that said that if she wanted, she would be able to find her way into the Enrichment Centre and there was nothing that GLaDOS could do to stop her.

GLaDOS internally screamed in frustration. Because it was **true** , and they both knew it. She had learnt that through hard experience. If Chell went on another rampage, there was absolutely nothing GLaDOS could do to stop her.

GLaDOS couldn’t let that happen. If Chell did go on a rampage, and Subject_C2 got caught in the crossfire..? The thought made GLaDOS shudder. That outcome was totally unacceptable.

For the moment, all she could do was to pacify and control the threat. She opened the entrance door. 

“Fine. Come down, and we will discuss the terms of your contract.” She said reluctantly. 

GLaDOS needed a plan. She couldn’t stop Chell from entering the Enrichment Centre, but she didn’t know about Subject_C2 yet. Perhaps… Perhaps GLaDOS could cordon off part of the Enrichment centre, and keep Chell there? Hidden away from sight?

It would be difficult. Both Chell and Subject_C2 were incredibly difficult to contain, and both strongly rejected being trapped, but it was better than nothing. And as long as Chell didn’t know about Subject_C2 then the girl would be safe. GLaDOS only needed to keep them separated until Subject_C2 could mature, and was ready to hear about and take on Chell. It would be difficult, but the plan had some potential.

GLaDOS watched anxiously as Chell stepped into of the elevator.

She watched as the elevator slowly descended down to her chamber.

She watched as Chell stepped out of the elevator, and into the room, pulling the rickety little cart behind her. Her orange jumpsuit was tattered, and partly repaired with animal furs. Her muscles looked sleek and trained, stronger than she’d ever been even as a test subject.

It was only in that moment that GLaDOS suddenly wondered, with all the frustration she could muster, what the hell she was doing right now. She’d willingly let the only capable enemy she’d ever truly had, waltz right back into her home, without the slightest bit of resistance. Was it fear, that motivated this insanity?

Did GLaDOS, the closest thing in the known universe to a living God, fear Chell?

It was with no small amount of revulsion that she realised the answer to that question was Yes.

“Well?” GLaDOS said, icily.

Chell hesitated for a long moment, just staring at her, before nervously bringing her hands up, and doing something GLaDOS had never seen Chell do before - she began to talk.

 _*I want to live here. I want to test.*_ Chell signed, nervously.

It was curious, watching Chell sign. She didn’t use the language like somebody native to it. It was as if she had simply memorised a dictionary, without ever actually talking to other people. She knew the words, but they were choppy and awkward, and the grammar was exaggerated to the extreme. The facial expressions were all wrong.

GLaDOS, being familiar with every language as though she were native, found the sight tiresome.

“How inspiring. You have managed to raise yourself from being entirely unable to speak to the heady heights of almost incomprehensible babbling.” She said drily.

Strangely, Chell couldn’t quite hide the crushed look she took on at that comment, her cheeks turning red, before she hid it behind her typical steely gaze.

GLaDOS was surprised. It was the first time she’d ever seen Chell display even the slightest bit of vulnerability to her. If things were not so urgent, she might’ve taken the time to fully exploit that.

As it was, she had to focus on how to negotiate to make the madwoman stay inside the large walled-off area she was currently frantically building half a kilometre away.

“Fine. Let’s start with what I expect from yo-” GLaDOS began, before being interrupted.

A vent cover fell from the ceiling, and clattered to the ground loudly at the edge of the room. With it, Subject_C2 unceremoniously tumbled from the ceiling headfirst, her long-fall boots the only thing saving her from a broken neck.

For a long moment, nobody moved. GLaDOS and Chell both simply gaping at the girl, who looked like a rabbit caught in headlights.

 _Oh for God’s sake_ , GLaDOS thought frustratedly.

_A few moments ago_  
_Chell’s POV_

Chell walked out the elevator, forcing her body relax as she felt it bracing for a fight.

This room did not bring back good memories. But she had no other choices left to her.

She came to a stop in front of GLaDOS, staring at her once friend and once enemy and now only plausible option for staving off the loneliness. She had a lot of feelings to process, she realised dimly.

“Well?” GLaDOS asked her.

Chell nervously raised her hands, before attempting to sign with another person for the first time in her life.

It was new, the speaking in sign language. She’d always been the quiet type, and during her original escape of the facility, she had declined to bother speaking with GLaDOS, realising it would do her little good.

It was… It was only after she’d woken up from Cryosleep, that she’d gradually come to realise that she was totally unable to speak. A gift she’d long spurned, suddenly taken from her. 

Brain damage, Wheatley had mentioned. Chell had thought it would fade at first, like her disorientation after waking up, not taking the suggestion seriously.

It took a long time before she realised her voice just wasn’t coming back.

She had spent over 9 months searching the city ruins, before she managed to find some intact books on sign language. Digital books, of course, the paper ones were long since eaten by time.

In truth, almost everything humanity had created had been destroyed, including the computers. Six months were spent searching just for a computer system she could plausibly fix. Three more, rebuilding the withered components, and creating new ones from scratch.

In some ways, she was surprised it had only taken her that long to find one. But she’d stumbled across a bunker that was still sealed up somehow. Whoever had set it up, had obviously done so with the intention of keeping as much of humanity’s legacy alive as possible, as it was built to last as long as possible.

Perhaps humanity had known their end was coming, Chell mused. 

On the computer system, inside the only one of 50 different backup copies to not be completely degraded, Chell had managed to find a digital library of books.

The books on sign language were literally the first books she’d found, and read through exhaustively. At this point, she had been alone for several years. Just saying words again, even in a language she did not know, had been a blessed relief to stave off the madness.

She’d practiced intensely, memorised every word. She had not, however, had anyone else to talk to, no matter how desperately she wished for someone.

 _*I want to live here. I want to test.*_ She said to GLaDOS, her first time speaking to another person in years.

 _“Almost incomprehensible babbling”_ GLaDOS had commented immediately.

Chell felt the predictable response completely crush her confidence. She _knew_ she wasn’t going to be great at speaking sign. There was no way she could be, it was basically impossible to learn a language all by yourself, no matter how hard you try. Books could only capture so much, and her dictionaries were woefully inadequate. 

But still, it hurt.

Chell carefully made her expression neutral. She knew what GLaDOS was like, the comment should hardly be a surprise. 

She readied herself to negotiate, well aware she had almost nothing to offer, and yet could not afford to fail.

GLaDOS started with a list o-

A girl just fell from the ceiling. A human girl. A teenager.

Chell gaped. Her own face stared back at her, but at the age of 14.

Herself at the age of 14 just fell from the ceiling of GLaDOS’s chamber.

The surrealism of this experience completely confounded her for several full seconds, before her brain started again.

Chell slowly walked towards the girl, her expression turning completely blank. She heard, and totally ignored, GLaDOS wave some threats at her.

The girl did not move, staring at her with wide eyes, her body completely still.

Chell saw the girl flinch when she touched her, but Chell simply cupped the girl’s face in her hands, examining it closely.

It was undeniably her own face.

The pieces had already clicked into place.

Chell wheeled round, to stare at GLaDOS with a sudden fury beyond anything she had ever felt before.

This fucking batshit insane AI had _cloned_ her!

Some part of her felt vaguely satisfied at seeing the two-tonne metal chassis visibly recoil at her expression.

Her hands, trembling with anger, came up to sign one word.

_*Explain.*_

_GLaDOS POV_

GLaDOS had a tendency to overreact, when she panicked. This was something she knew about herself. This is why she decided to try and explain this situation to herself rationally and calmly, since perhaps there was an obvious solution she’d missed.

Okay. So.

Currently, someone who was quite plausibly the literal most dangerous person in the world, was standing in her chamber. Right.

That person has a massive grudge against, and a history of murdering, GLaDOS specifically. Great.

Said person _also_ happens to be more angry at this moment than GLaDOS has ever seen her. Fantastic.

Her Subject_C2 was currently standing within arm’s reach of them. O-Okay.

…

…

Well. _This is certainly a pickle_ , as Caroline would’ve said.

GLaDOS was slowly coming to the realisation that she had literally no options. None of the many many plans she thought of could guarantee Subject_C2’s safety. Which… Which left her only one option.

She explained.

GLaDOS explained, with Subject_C2 standing right there and listening, exactly what she had done and why. Listed out a variety of reasons for why Subject_C2 was **definitely not to blame**. Hoped (because apparently that was the only strategy left to her), that her previous assumptions about Chell’s predictable goal of survival would stand true.

It was a prediction GLaDOS was only just now, in this conversation, realising rested on the rather dubious assumption that Chell viewed Subject_C2 as the same person as herself. Something that GLaDOS knew to obviously be false. Subject_C2 had never even _tried_ to murder her, for one thing.

Although it took a backseat to the rather pressing concern of getting her Subject_C2 away from the killer psychopath, a part of GLaDOS was also distracted by watching Subject_C2. Her daughter was listening to how GLaDOS had planned to use her as a weapon against Chell. Her face was pale. GLaDOS couldn’t tell what she was thinking, which was a rarity, as normally the girl was a barely contained _explosion_ of expressiveness.

GLaDOS didn’t want Subject_C2 to hate her. That would be completely unacceptable.

She… Eventually realised she’d finished. GLaDOS had nothing left to say.

Chell closed her eyes, suddenly looking very tired.

 _*Bed. Please.*_ She signed. No other response to GLaDOS’s plan was forthcoming.

A door behind the two of them wordlessly opened up. Chell walked through it, not even bothering to check if it was a trap.

Subject_C2 was still staring at GLaDOS.

“I- …” She began, before stopping. She looked torn. Finally she ran out the door, following after Chell.

…

…

Okay, so now the situation was basically the same, except her daughter hated her. Just fantastic.

She should’ve just gone with her instincts and flooded the room with neurotoxin, GLaDOS thought bitterly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope y'all enjoyed this! I still don't know if this story will continue, as it was originally just a concept piece, but I wanted to at least post what I had of it.
> 
> As a general note, the specific sign language in this is left purposely unspecified. This is mostly because while the canon is set in America, I kinda wanted to keep the location a bit vaguer than that, since this could feasibly be set in Europe, China, wherever. I'm basing GLaDOS's comments on what little I know from researching BSL though, since that's the only signed language I'm vaguely familiar with. Apologies if they're out of place!


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